Geographies of enthusiasm

This session is interested in people, places and cultures that have for various reasons been overlooked, regarded as old-fashioned or too readily classed as mundane, non-spectacular, even ‘amateur’. Papers will discuss a culture of exploration that involves romance, revery, memory, as well as political purpose and physical endeavour, and incorporates fieldwork carried out at weekends, on the off-chance or as part of daily life. Focusing on landscapes of exploration in the city, suburbia, and/or the rural, places that are inhabited, cared for and preserved, practices and techniques based upon archaeology, local history and architectural significance, this session offers an opportunity to challenge how geographers have examined people’s understandings of the world, their place within it, and their fascination for it.